[SlvSTI05]

Well just got back from Subaru of Dallas not too long ago, what a nice place. Very good customer service and quality work. Anyways here it goes. Before I arrived at the dealership my car was nearly stock, set aside for a K&N thphoon

What I had done: Cobb pulley, Cobb AP, Cobb Turboback exhaust

My reviews...

Pulley: Honestly I dont know, its so tough to tell when all of these performance mods were done at once. Im sure it works great, but with the installation of the accessport and turboback it was hard to notice how much of the power came from the pulley. Im assuming it probably gave around 5 to 8 hp. I choose to go with the gold pulley, it looks very clean under the engine bay. Good mod IMO.

Turboback:
Very high quality exhaust. The fitment is excellent, the whole system tucks up very nice and high...good ground clearence, even with the converter. The sound is suprisingly quiet for a turboback. I can honestly compare it to the stock system, just a little more bass in a sense. Step on it however and it has a nice high rpm growl. I love the way the muffler and tip look. The muffler is a nice classic muffler shape, and the tip is very stealthy and clean looking...the etched cobb logo is a nice touch as well. Overall to the untrained eye the exhaust system looks and sounds damn near stock. Power gains.....meh, I dont know if its just me..but I was expecting alot more.

Accessport:
Im kinda dissapointed when it comes to the accessport. From all the talk and hype I was expecting some real noticable gains. Not so. In all honesty its really hard for me to tell that the car picked up the power gains cobb claims. Now dont get me wrong, I noticed a gain in the low end, quicker turbo spooling....but the top end still dies out like before. I know most of this is attributed to the turbo. All in all I was expecting lights out kick ass power, maybe Im just getting old....but I dont feel the 40-50hp gain that cobb claims. Im glad I got stage 2 thats for sure, I would be severly dissapointed with stage 1 for the price of this unit.

Overall:
Well when it all comes down to it im kind of dissapointed. I guess I hyped myself up way too much for these mods, but it seemed everyone had greaet reviews. Now im not saying these mods dont work, of course they do. I just expected to feel it more I guess. The Subaru techs said to give the ECU a couple days to develope some learning, so he said to expect some up and down performance untill then. I will keep my hopes up, hopefully I will feel my moneys worth.

Special thanks to Niel Baywater of Subaru of Dallas
Mike

[Digitalfiend]

Hmmm, did you have your ECU flashed to a base map of Stage 2 93? Make sure that they didn't forget to flash your ECU or only flash it to Stage 1. Also, some people have reported problems (power loss etc) running the K&N with the AP Stg 2.

If you are really unsatisfied you might want to consider unplugging your battery, resetting the ECU, and letting the ECU start fresh with the Stage 2 map.

From what I've heard of stage 2, the improvements should be rather large. An 85+lb-ft increase at the flywheel should be damn noticeable.

[SlvSTI05]

Im thinking about giving the typhoon the boot. Yes the ECU is maped at stage 2 93. I plugged it in when I got home and selected current map...sure enough stage 2. Like I said I may be crazy. Everyone else notices it, but I really dont value my girlfriends opinion on power gains that much. Other than that shes a pretty cool woman.

Should I unplug the battery, pop on the stock air box, and try that out. Im not so eager to try any changes yet due to the fact the subey guys said to give the ecu a couple days to learn. Not to mention I dont have a K&N filter for the stock setup. Guess I could buy one though.

[Digitalfiend]

I would give it a week, run it fairly hard and see what happens. I just don't see a huge improvement happening due to ECU acclimatization to the mods/new map. Keep us updated.

[wrxtc]

The only mods I have done whatsoever have been Cobb TBE and AP stage 2 and there was a HUGE difference driving the car immediately after re-flashing. It's absolutely unmistakable.. there's no way anyone could think it wasn't a huge increase if they drove it before/after. The car makes way more boost way faster than before. I get the same or maybe even better acceleration around 2.5k-3.5k rpm as stock with maybe HALF the throttle input. If I put the pedal way down it boosts HARD by 3.5k.. the torque increase is night and day. I rode along while my friend drove for a while and many times my head was unceremoniously SLAMMED back into the headrest because I wasn't paying attention to what was about to happen.

Reading threads like this just gives me more reason to be wary of installing my Typhoon intake. Man, I definitely want to get my moneys worth for that intake and possibly ~10+ WHP increase above 5000rpm. But I'm not installing it without either seeing dyno proof with a (nearly) exact same setup car with before/after dynos or going to a dyno myself and baselining my current setup and then installing the intake immediately and re-dynoing the same day.

I've already spent over 2 grand on my car counting the Cobb TBE, AP and the intake I haven't installed. I'm just holding out hoping someone else will do the dynos first :P.

[SlvSTI05]

I wish someone would do a dyno comparision, with the intake and without. I would have taken care of this theory long ago if i had access to a dyno.

[Barista]

If you are in Dallas, then you do have access to a dyno.

http://www.fi-systems.com

Put on stock, get a run, put on the K&N, get a run.

Post results, mystery solved!

[SlvSTI05]

Ok I must just be crazy or something. The power is there, no doubt. I decided to take a little test drive today and do a live boost reading via accessport. Here is the best numbers I came up with.

1st gear- 15.5 psi
2nd gear- 17.1 tappering to 15 by redline
3rd gear- 17.9/18.0 tappering to 15 by redline

I didt get a chance to check out any of the higher gears, its a bit cold outside today so I didnt want to risk the chance of boost creep. Also, I dont know how accurate this gauge is on the accessport, but I feel better knowings its making strong boost numbers. Ill keep the typhoon on for now, honestly even if the typhoon is making it make less power im ok with that. I dont think I would want anymore boost.

[STirish]

Originally Posted by SlvSTI05

...Ill keep the typhoon on for now, honestly even if the typhoon is making it make less power im ok with that. I dont think I would want anymore boost.

It's not going to change the boost level. What these guys are suggesting is the airflow around the MAF is disrupted by the intake, causing erroneous readings. If your ECU doesn’t know how much mass air is in the system, it can't properly adjust the A/F ratios. I'd take the intake off now, reset the ECU, and see how things turn out after a few days of driving. You don't need a K&N filter for the stock air box, infact they're mostly a waste and can cause problems due to the oil. The stock pannel filter flows pretty well.

The fewer variables in the system, the better for diag. If nothing changes after a week w/o the intake, try it again. At least you’ll know it is or is not the intake causing the problems (If there are any problems at all).

[wan2gofast]

i dont know what to tell you but after i put on my helix catless down pipe this weekend and switched over to Staqe 2 on the AP i felt a huge increase in power. It was definently noticealbe and everyone that has been in my car is amazed that such little parts such as these things can make this change. I feel bad for you that you are not getting the same power increase as the rest of us. But Stage 2 is definelty awsome and its just going to be some time until i have to spring for the Access Tuner and a bigger turbo because this car is just amazing

[SlvSTI05]

Its feeling better to be honest with you, I guess the ECU just needed some time. Defenitely feel a strong pull, especially in 1st. I guess I was just paranoid.

[Adam]

keep us up to date on the progress...

[SlvSTI05]

will do

[Digitalfiend]

So for those you with AP stg 2, how is your traction? Do you break traction in 1st if you roll off the line and floor it? What about 2nd? How do you find the pull in middle range of 4th (say 70-100mph) to middle of 5th?